My partner and I met more than 20 years ago -- at church. We started dating three years later. In 1991, nearly 13 years ago, we had a service of commitment.

Today, we have two children and two mortgages. We are both respected professionals in our fields. We pay taxes and strive to be good citizens of both the United States of America and California.

The state of California recognizes our relationship. We have a piece of paper from the state that gives us certain rights and responsibilities to one another. But the piece of paper we have from the state that legalizes our relationship is different from the piece of paper the state gave our friends Dan and Kathy when they wanted to legalize their relationship. Dan and Kathy have a marriage license and we have a Declaration of Domestic Partnership.

As a same-gender couple, we don't have the same rights and responsibilities as our straight friends. We have been granted a separate and unequal status. We are second-class citizens. This is wrong. This is un- American. This is not an example of our nation living up to its highest ideals.

Eleven score and eight years ago our nation was founded on a notion that granted rights to many who had never had rights before. Though our nation was founded on the ideal that all men are created equal, few men, and no women, at the time had full rights of citizenship. Over the past 225 years, our country has had a proud tradition of extending the rights of citizenship to greater and greater numbers of people.

To be honest, I have never been that worked up about getting the right to legally marry. It won't change my relationship with Rinda because we are as committed to one another as any two people can be. I have been more concerned about diminished funding to public education and a war across the world.

I realized, however, as I attempted to explain the headlines from Massachusetts and San Francisco to my children, that I could no longer remain silent. Marriage rights are civil rights. The government recognizes my relationship, accepts my taxes and then expects me to accept fewer rights based on whom I love.

While there may be historical reasons for this, it is still wrong. There are historical reasons for many mistakes. Two hundred years ago, only men who owned land were allowed to vote. Women could not vote in this country until 1920. Thirty-eight years ago, interracial marriage was against the law in many states. Fifty years ago, Rosa Parks had to sit in the back of the bus. History and tradition are no guarantee of the moral high ground.

It is time to remedy an injustice in our midst. It is time to take another step in building the fair and just society of which our ancestor dreamed.